Social Media: The New house of Commons (Aam Aaadmi ka darbar)

Inspired by @KanchanGupta sirs tweet “Much 'abuse' you see on Twitter is directly proportionate to media fraudulence. Folks had no platform. They now have one to give it back”.

The Common Man first came to life through RK Laxman’s satirical cartoons in The Times of India. The satirical toon showed life of a common man and our Aam Aadmi jhatakse got connected cartoon life to his real life for LOL.  There was no way forward. The “Aam Aadmi did not have his say in the day-to-day governance of the country. He was a mere voter, would vote a government to power based on the reporting in the main stream media (MSM). He could raise his voice once in five years using his veto power when slogans like Hamara Haath Aam Aaadmi ke saath erupts.

The Indian voted the government paid his taxes which the employer deducts automatically every month, He had no means or way to know where his tax money goes; what actually happens to his hard earned money which he pays towards taxes. He used to just toil whole day to take care of his family (huge joint families). At the end of the day laughs at self by looking at RK Laxmans satirical cartoons. He was a novice till the next general elections / state elections. Then we saw a Mumbai Niwasi filled with anger, played by Naseeruddin Shah in the movie “A Wednesday”. I will call it as first-of-its-kind outburst of Common Man shown on cinema. The movie was received well from Indian audiences as our nation is afflicted with the dirtiest disease called terrorism. The movie showed him blowing up terrorists who were given a kind of asylum by the government in Indian jails. (Biriyani Khao Khud Jaan Jao J)

RK Laxman’s satirical toons or A Wednesday did impact the Indian but he remained a silent spectator and continued seeing at the monologues of the available bunch of Anchors who by now started to think Ham Bhagwan hai. At the first place we did not have a platform to raise his issues or never knew what issues to be raised for the betterment of the society, He was also duty bound towards his family. I would rather say he never got time to raise a voice. He felt his duty as an Indian was to vote in or vote out a government and which he continued for decades. He kept voting for or against any government mostly depended on the kind of news he consumed through few irritating anchors of news channels.

The citizens did have a platform called “Letters to the editors” which used to get published with the approval from the editors of the news papers and most of the unpublished goes to the dust bins. I have been a media seller and have seen many of them getting space in the dust bin. The MSM did try to get the citizens involved but again what goes in the news purely depends on the so called Bhagwans approval. Few MSM started initiative to involve the aam aadmi (Citizen Journalist types) but it reminded me of “letters to the editor” on television. It did reveal few corrupt people using sting as tool but with its censor cap on always like what to telecast or how much of it to telecast.

Then came the era of technology / computerization made a huge impact in the day today affairs globally reducing human efforts, India too adapted to the new evolving technologies to smooth-en the day to day administration. As the changeover was on a very fast pace, The human took some time to understand the entire technological aspects of business / administration. He kept wondering about the pace in the changeover, he voted out a government during the changing phase. He gave another term to the existing government as he still believed the MSM which was still forcing him consume the rationed news. MSM kept on feeding him with the stings using his expertise and intelligence; showed what to show and blacked out what they don’t want to show.

 The era of Internet changed it all for the we the people of India; initially the common man was enjoying the Internet catching up with friends who lived far away. It was fun for him to see faces of his friends using video conference. He kept screaming YAHOOO started FACEBOOKING and would tweet for fun.  As the nation progressed our man who by now was evolved internet geek and his hunger to extract information started gaining momentum through source points like government websites etc, he started understanding the day today administration of the government. He could not stop himself from being a just a mute spectator to the Government scams which started unearthing. Our man who was then a believer of MSM expected the truth to flow but his expectations went down the drains.

This is my man who by now evolved into a serious gatherer of Information like @KiranKS had started taking pot shots at MSM like a site by Aam Aadmi @mediacrooks takes the MSM head on “Indian Media Watch.... Crooks and Liars in the Indian media are the greatest danger to our democracy. Bias, outright lies, paid news, plagiarism and political leanings characterize much of our media” and started writing about today’s national scenarios like @centerofright India's GDP to grow by 6.9% says IMF below 7% . TCM who got hooked on the Internet for fun turned serious nation builders. Hash # tags started to appear for everything new related to national interests. The hash tag like #AMS proved everyone that Social media is the new power house. The MSM which kept #AMS issue under wraps for more than week was forced to take it live on television though they presented the outburst of social media as irresponsible. The TCM started evolving more to have looked at legal course of action against something which he felt is not right like @surnell tweeted "Decided to send out legal notices to all these parties involved. Spoke to legal advisors Sir ". This was in regard to the demolition of Chikkajala fort, a historical part of Benglauru.

As rightly said by Kanchan da “Folks had no platform” to show their share of voice and social media being a free for all platform the common mans outburst was electrifying with abuses. Anything during infancy is cried out loud and things do simmer down slowly and there would be an evolved Aam Aadmi who would take on the MSM in a smarter way if media fraudulence continued.